Sawyer Bennett - Off Limits (Follow up book to Off Sides)

 “There is a vulnerability there, hovering just below the surface. And I want to pick at it until I expose it. Then I want to kiss it."

Two years ago, Emily Burnham, had an epiphany about the shallowness of her life. And she made it her mission to become a different person…a better woman. Out from under the controlling thumb of her mother, Emily is tasting the real world for the first time. And she likes it.

Nixon Caldwell has served his time in the Marine Corps, surviving two brutal tours in Afghanistan. He is back home, surrounded by what he likes best…isolation. It's certainly the best way to avoid confrontation of the consuming guilt that is weighing him down.

When an accident brings Emily and Nix together, he soon learns he is not the master of his own fate. Struggling with his own pain, Nix tries to guard himself against Emily’s charms. He wants her in his bed, but he doesn’t want her in his heart.

Having grabbed life by the horns, Emily wants it all. But is she willing to accept just the small part of himself that Nix is offering? Can she reach the part of his soul that he has deemed to be Off Limits?

Off Limits is the follow up book to Off Sides, by Sawyer Bennett. When Sawyer contacted me and asked if I would be interested in an advanced reading of Off Limits- I was so excited to find out where Ryan and Danny (from Off Sides) were at in the "future" and how life might have changed for Emily, Ryan's sister. Emily and Nix are the main characters for Off Limits - and we first got to meet Emily in Off Sides, where she was a bit of a bitch! She followed in her stuck up, high class mothers footsteps - but at the very end of the book, Emily reaches out to Ryan for a little guidance and opens her eyes a little. 

Now, two years in the future- we get to read about Emily starting her own life, now being at Columbia University and trying to live a complete different life than what she had back home in Boston. She doesn't want to be the stuck up- snob anymore.. and finds a friend, Fil, to help her achieve this.

The way Off Limits is written is a little blunter wording than Off Sides was, at least it seemed like it to me. I do love though, the go back and forth of narration between Emily and Nix, and see both of their emotions, thoughts and feelings. But the writing is different than most novels than I've read and it takes a little getting used to the step by step verbalizing.

I had to find myself growing to like Nix. He speaks somewhat in the third person, but there is always something about the closed off, stand back, sexy man that gets me intrigued. He is a veteran to the war and has come back with PTSD... Sometimes I like reading these types of characters to see beyond just the fights and deaths that we are constantly hearing about in the news, but about the after math of some of these hero's that come home, and what they too go through- and the different injuries inside they deal with, such as Nix.

I definitely warmed up to Nix more so when he started to flirt with Emily... and show more of his feelings.

Emily's is more of the character I took interest in- she is trying hard to become the adult she wants to be, and it was a fun read her growing into that person (especially after reading how she was in Off Sides). 

Sawyer Bennett is an author that can write about two characters that become so immersed with each other, so elated by each other and an off the chart chemistry with one another that you can't help but to keep on reading. Both books that I have read of hers have captured me in the essence of the romance, the deep connection between the lead male and female - and I have never read love scenes that are so thought out, step by step, breathe by breathe claiming of one another. It's the type of love scenes that after finishing ... you find yourself at a loss of breathe yourself. It's a combination of hot, sexy, breath-taking and lovely all at the same time.

I give Off Limits 4 STARS with 5+ star love scenes!